I think the stats speak for themselves. BYU is inarguably on an
upward trend with its defense while utah is inarguably on a downward trend. YOu
can make whatever excuses or reason you want to make for those FACTS but they
are FACTS never the less.

BYU's defense outplayed utah's
last year in their head to head matchup (less rushing yards, less passing yards,
less total yards, and less points given up) while also outperforming them for
the season overall.

And no I don't think the pac 12 scheduling
of the last 2 years had much to do with it. utah didn't even play the best
2 teams in the pac12 either year and still got lit up by some pretty mediocre
pac 12 teams. In fact utah's first year in the pac 12 the conference was
pretty bad. Last year the pac 12 was improved and utah was even worse.

I had the great fortune to spend some close up and personal time this last week
with a Utah fan. A real one, not the trolls on the boards. It reminded me why
I used to like the U.

He said something interesting that is important
to share. He said that when he travels, he constantly has to apologize for some
u fans. He stated that many times that u fans don't have much respect for
tradition, legacy, and the great college programs because they were left looking
in in both 2004 and 2008. He knows that most of the PAC 12 can't stand
Utah and it is mostly because the fans feel entitled without earning anything.
He hopes that either Utah starts winning, or the fans learn that they are not
the shining program they think they are and temper their comments and
actions.

He also hates chris b. We had a good laugh because we had
something in common. He said chris epitomizes everything that is wrong with Utah
fans.

How quickly things are forgotten. BYU played five top 25
teams last year when they ranked third in the nation for defense. Is this
really a drop in competition from pre-Independence? The only year that BYU
played a tougher schedule was 2004 where they played Utah, Boise and USC, the
three teams that went undefeated. BYU steadily improved on defense, Utah has
done the reverse.

Football success does not revolve around the
rivalry game for the Cougars. It never has. BYU's success is measured by
looking at a season as a whole, whether the team finished ranked and won its
bowl game. BYU had a crappy year last year. Utah had a stellar year in the
eyes of its fans. They beat BYU. That victory saw Ute fans storm the field more
than once. That end of game shows what is most important to the fans. It
isn't about winning championships. It is about one thing--beat BYU.

@DuckhunterYou're right, Washington, USC, Arizona, UCLA, and Arizona
State are nowhere near as good as the mightly Vandals of Idaho, and those mighty
New Mexico teams who had to recruit cheerleaders just to field a team.

The 2011 BYU-Utah game was a complete anomaly, caused mainly
by a rash of 7 turnovers, the first two of which gave Utah the ball in
BYU's end zone and the second at BYU's 3 yard line. Then late in the
game, Utah capitalized on a tired, disheartened BYU defense to break a several
big scoring plays up the middle.

The only other team to even score 30
points against BYU in 2011, was 14th-ranked TCU on the road.

In 2012,
BYU's defense only gave up FIVE rushing TD's the entire season, while
playing FIVE Top 25 teams, as well as Georgia Tech, the 2nd best rushing team in
the country.

Utah vs BYU 2012Rushing 49Passing 196Total 245

Utah vs BYU 2010Rushing 89Passing 207Total 296

In two of the last three games versus Utah, BYU has held
the Utes under 100 yards rushing and under 300 years total offense.

As was said previously, take off your crimson-colored goggles once in awhile
an examine BYU's complete record against good and bad teams, not just your
cherry-picked stats.

Oh I totally get the chart. It shows that BYU
does not maintain a steady ranking. After peaking in 2003 and 2007, things
headed south. They peaked last year, which means the defense will drop off this
year.

As usual, our little friends on the hill are so obsessed
with BYU, that it's impossible for them to see the big picture.

One game does not a season make, which is how BYU finished in the Top 25 in
2011, and Utah didn't receive a single vote in either poll, and how BYU
went bowling last season, while the sorry Utes spent the holidays watching bowl
week from the comfort of their couch.

The format of the graph makes perfect sense. The better the defense, the higher
the point on the graph.

Also- isn't calling BYU "byU"
kind of ignorant to the fact that "byU" and the UoU were both founded by
"by?" Seems kind of disrespectful to the founder of the three biggest
universities in Utah, the University of Utah included. Just food for thought.

Also, national defensive rankings have not been padded by WAC teams
for BYU. BYU's best defensive games since independence have come against
the best teams they've played (sans OSU in the last 9 minutes this past
year of course). Yes, Utah has beaten BYU both years of BYU's independence
(last years trifecta only counts as 1 win, surprisingly enough ;) ), but on a
*yearly* basis---that is, an entire 12 game season, 13 if you make a
bowl---BYU's defense has been the best in the state for the past three
years, as is shown in the graph.

Your points are extremely obvious and self
explanatory. When a team's defense finishes 3rd in the entire nation, and
loses a keystone DE as the #5th pick in the NFL draft, as well as its leading
tackler, they couldn't possibly be expected to repeat the same level of
dominance.

Similar analogy---BYU fans saying that Utah peaked in
2008, and it just all goes down hill (that's a quality pun) from
there...you can't do any better than undefeated...I predict they will do
worse in 2009..LOL no duh.

Also- @talkinsports

LOL
"cherry-picked stats" criticism immediately preceded by 2010 and 2012
stats..clearly leaving out the 2011 debacle...hypocrisy at its finest. This is
the type of fan nobody wants to see on the comment boards...Ute fans will gladly
smack that comment out of the park that you just teed up for them so nicely.

Cool stats. You know Utah is in REALLY bad shape when USU had a better defense
than Utah. However, USU played one of the top 10 easiest schedules so it's
a bit deceiving. Utah just lost most of its best players from its defense,
which was a lot. I don't know how they'll recover this year. 4 wins
seems likely for them seeing their schedule and will be the worst defense again
this year, playing the likes of Stanford, Oregon, a revamped BYU offense usually
in the top 25 with Anae, and re-energized Washington State and their potential
prolific offense. Don't forget other teams that can score like USC, UCLA,
and ASU.

Blah blah blah....too many speculations. Though I don't like to hear Chris
B and his demeanor, he is right. We can talk all about how good our defense has
been but, until we get the proverbial "U" monkey off our back, the
bragging rights belong to him and he will use it over and over. Beat Utah and
have a great season. It won't make him go away but it will give us the
bragging rights until we meet again.

Considering that Utah State was 7 points away from being
undefeated last year, not to mention we all know they should have beat
Wisconsin, I'm not going to take your comment as an insult to Utah. But
don't deny that your schedule has been filled the last 2 years with the
bottom feeders of the WAC such Idaho State, Idaho, and New Mexico State. Even
Hawaii was a bottom feeder last year.